As Managing Director of Global Partnerships and Support, Lisa Turker serves as a key member of the Global Programs leadership team and develops opportunities to execute BU’s global strategy. She collaborates with BU schools, colleges, and administrative units to develop and expand international partnerships and programs as well as review partnerships with international institutions in the areas of research, teaching, and service. Lisa also oversees Global Programs’ international health, safety and security responsibilities.

Prior to joining BU Global Programs, Lisa was the Assistant Dean of International Education at the University of Arizona (UA) overseeing the management and student support services for UA’s microcampus dual degree partnerships, Global Direct online pathways programs, and noncredit programs offered abroad. Prior to this role, Lisa served in leadership roles at UA Study Abroad, most recently as the Director of Arizona Abroad Locations.

Before joining UA in 2016, she lived for seven years in Turkey and Kazakhstan. In Turkey, Lisa worked for Istanbul Arel University as a lecturer and international office advisor, and managed part of the university’s Erasmus Plus programs. While in Kazakhstan, Lisa was a graduate program manager at Kazakhstan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Studies (KIMEP), teaching and managing graduate-level English programs in law, business, and the social sciences. Before working for KIMEP, she was based at the U.S. Mission in Almaty, Kazakhstan working on USAID/Central Asian Republic projects.

Lisa holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Cincinnati and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Southern Methodist University. As an undergraduate, she studied abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, and she has since traveled to more than 20 countries throughout Europe, Central Asia, Eastern Europe, South America, and the Middle East.